Timothy Birdnow

Missouri Governor Mike Parsons wants to overturn a recently passed Constitutional amendment that changed the way the state of Missouri does redistricting.

The amendment, which I like to call the Democrat Renewal Act, fundamentally transformed the way Missouri does redistricting, emphasizing "partisan fairness" and "competitiveness". Missouri has been steadily transforming from a purple to a red state, and the GOP congress has been in control of redistricting, making the Democrats less and less competitive. The amendment, which was quite convoluted in wording and emphasized on the ballot it would prevent gerrymandering, was passed by voters who did not understand it.

Dubbed the "Clean Missouri" initiative, the measure takes redistricting out of the hands of the legislature and puts it into a "bipartisan" committee, which would be ultimately chosen by and responsible to the State Auditor. That position - elected in off years - has generally been held by Democrats, and they will pull out all stops to keep control of it during redistricting periods. Democrats are always much better at crunch-time politics than Republicans, and no doubt they will control redistricting for the forseeable future if this measure takes effect.

The measure also limited lobbyist gifts and other forms of legalized graft, which was a big part of the appeal to voters. Most voters did not understand the redistricting portion, and that was why this was put forward as a single bill.

Among the provisions of this law are "balanced" districts, meaning minorities must be represented in most districts. Since outstate Missouri, the rural portions, are quite homogenous, this will require serpentine districts stretching tens of miles into big cities. And, of course, this will dilute the power of rural Republicans and their voters. That was the whole idea.

Even the AP admitted this will greatly increase Democrats viability in statewide races.

The Governor is right to try to repeal or at least water this measure down. Democrats should not be able to win by trickery and diluting the votes of rural Missourians. That is the same dirty trick they want to use across the nation, demanding pure democracy - something the Founding Fathers loathed and feared. America was never intended to be a tyranny of a majority. And of course even if they are not in a majority the Democrats will try to judiciously use their authority to win elections. If nothing else, the minorities in these districts will split votes.

We are a Republic, not a democracy.

This is just another dirty tactic of the Democrats. Like bringing in illegal aliens to vote, or enfranchising felons, or keeping polls open late in Democrat districts, or busing in college kids across state lines, we've seen this sort of dirty tricksterism before. It's time it stopped.

The Republicans made a terrible mistake in not vigorously opposing this bill. But then, the RINO class - including "Saint John" Danforth - supported it. They would rather lose the state but keep authority in "their" party than win.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 504 words, total size 3 kb.